Join Chet Davis - Your Tech Tutor for this on-line classroom where he will teach you how you can use the Pandora internet radio service to create your own custom 'radio' station.
You'll learn how to set-up you own music 'channels', interact with them to further customize your channel/s, how to find & listen to others channels, and how to use Pandora on your computer, your smart-phone, and your home entertainment system.
Chet will be offering this free on-line lesson in two separate sessions, click below to register for the session that fits your calendar best:
Weekend Entertainment Time... I recently came across this on-line video - even though it was produced back in 2009. I am a big fan of West Side Story, so this was a shoe-in with me.
College Humor produced this music video and folks who use technology will get a kick out of the clever inclusions of many contemporary on-line tools. Enjoy 'Web Site Story' by the folks at College Humor
I was thrilled at the reception from participants from the Tech Tutor webinar this morning where I taught how to adjust your Privacy Settings on Facebook!
I am pleased to now announce the topics for the next six months - these webinars or on-line learning sessions will provide a thorough lesson while you participate from the comfort and convenience in your home or office.
I am excited to announce the launch of a brand new learning opportunity - the Tech Tutor Classroom. The Tech Tutor Classroom is a series of technology lessons & presentations delivered live over the internet -- from my computer to yours. This 'webinar' technology allows me to teach a group of folks who are miles apart.
The participants will be able to see my computer screen as I teach from a variety of contemporary and interesting topics. You will also be able to hear my voice, and other program audio through your computer speaker or headset.
I will be presenting these Tech Tutor Classroom sessions every other Wednesday at 9:30AM Pacific Time (10:30AM Central/12:30PM Eastern).
Click to below playback a short video highlighting the new Tech Tutor Classroom online learning opportunity.
This brand new Tech Tutor series allows folks to learn from the comfort and convenience of their home or office -- and receive excellent instruction from a top-notch teacher.
I have spent more than 30 years working successfully with communication and productivity technologies -- and the only thing I enjoy more than relevant technology tools is teaching.
I spent 17 years as a professional educator -- since leaving the public school classroom, I have led workshops and seminars across North America.
For further details and specifics for the webinar technology click to visit the 'Tech Tutor Online Learning' page.
The Google Doodle on the home page of Google today is a tribute to Rock and Rock Hall of Famer Les Paul ( a pioneer in the development of the electric guitar and recording studio techniques). But this is also one of Google's most fun Doodles!
What comes up is this guitar looking interface on your Google home page. Go ahead and strum the 'strings' with our cursor. Each string makes a different musical note. It's really kind of cool, even someone with little or no musical training might get hooked on playing the guitar!
And here's something of a surprise - click the little box in the bottom right corner of the guitar and it will record 30-seconds of your guitar music! Then click on the playback triangle at the bottom left of that graphic (it even gives you the URL or web address of the file it recorded so you can send it to the record companies to pitch them on your next big hit.
Tomorrow the Exhibit Floor of the CES 2011 opens here in Las Vegas, today it's Press Conference city from a number of manufacturers. I was able to experience products from Lenovo (and play with their new Hybrid Tablet PC/Laptop and All In One (Computer/HD TV system), Netgear (with 8 new products to enhance and enable the connected/wireless home), Pioneer Automotive (with wireless products for our vehicles), and more. Later today I am expecting other new product announcements and tonight it's a huge press event from Sony.
I would say the trend among many of the new technology tools making their premiere here at CES 2011 is 'Connected Lifestyle'.
CEA's (Consumer Electronics Association) Shawn DuBravac summarized this well: "Last year it was, 'This is a 3D TV, and it also has Internet connectivity.' This year things will be the reverse -- 'This is an Internet-enabled TV that also does 3D.'"
I read an article on-line this morning that caused me great alarm:
"According to the American Academy of Audiology, “approximately 12 percent of all children ages 6-19 have noise induced hearing loss”. With the current popularity of MP3 players and other portable audio devices, there is some concern that users may be causing permanent hearing damage from cranking up the volume too loud.
This was part of a post on the CEA Digital Dialogue (CEA= Consumer Electronics Association) written by Guest Blogger, Med Dyer, co-founder and chief technology officer at dB Logic.
I have seen children with ear-buds and head-phones and been tempted at times to ask my 10 year-old to put them on at times (frankly, to save me from having to listen to a particular song or the repeating music from a video game)... buy my wife who holds a degree in Early Childhood Education cautioned me against this for the concern over hearing damage - which is apparently more prone to occur in young kids.
This article bears this out -- apparently hearing loss has risen nearly 30 percent in the last decade! Apart from just turning down the volume on whatever device you're kids are listening to (and depending on them to do that while they're engaged in the movie, video or game) there is a newer method and that's to use headphones and earphones that limit sound pressure.
These are headphones and earphones with built-in circuitry that limits the volume levels to a safe threshold that works to prevent short and long-term hearing damage. I will be checking their products out at the CES 2011 show in Las Vegas, Nevada next month and will let you know my first-hand (or first-ear) impression. If you'd like to find out more now, you can visit the dB Logic Sound website.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has a program titled Listen To Your Buds, a public education campaign that is aimed at preventing noise-induced hearing loss by helping parents teach their children how to use personal audio technology safely. You will find additional information and some helpful tips for kids and audio here: ListenToYourBuds.org
If you're looking to add some new Christmas music to your collection, here are a couple sources for free and low-cost holiday tunes:
My favorites so far this year are the free sampler mini-albums available at Amazon.com. One note is that these are not CDs you're ordering, they're MP3 files, which means you _can_ download them onto your computer and then use iTunes or another software application to create your own CD (I did). But you can also load these MP3 files onto your mobile phone, iPod or other MP3 player - or play them directly from your computer while you're working or using your computer to type that belated holiday letter/email card.
Here are my two that I really liked - they are both collections with only five songs and they are both instrumental:
It should also be noted that to download these songs you must download and use the free, easy to use Amazon MP3 Downloader. You simply follow the 2 simple steps as it guides you to download your music, which it then deposits into your iTunes or Music folder on your computer.
If you have young kids in your home during the holidays, and if they like the Veggie Tales TV, movie and music series - you'd want to download the free 16 song Veggie Tales - Incredible Christmas Tree. Also a free MP3 download at Amazon.com.
Amazon also has an amazing offer to download 99 songs, yes 99 complete MP3 tracks for only $1.99. There is no catch - other than these are not likely the top tunes you'll hear playing on the all Christmas music radio stations in your city (but maybe that's a bonus!). IT's a collection of mostly orchestral (classical) compositions as well as chroale (choir) music. It's a great collection to have as background music for your holiday celebrations. You can download it here: The 99 Most Essential Christmas Masterpieces
If you'd like to check out the other free Christmas music sampler albums - from the above free two albums (on Amazon.com) scroll down to the lower part of the page where you see: Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
And you'll see even more sampler holiday albums for you to add to your holiday cheer!
If you click into iTunes today, you will see a big splash that makes it clear who the newest artist available via the online music/entertainment 'store' is: The Beatles.
In the iTunes store you can now purchase & download songs from all 13 of the group's original studio albums, as well as special collections & box sets. Single songs are priced at $1.29 with full albums at $12.99 ($19.99 for the double-album sets).
There are also two cool short videos you can play (free) in iTunes 'Live at the Washington (DC) Coliseum' their first concert in the US when they arrived in 1964 and 'The Beatles Through The Years', a well produced photo/video of the Beatles career set to their music.
"We're really excited to bring the Beatles' music to iTunes," said Sir Paul McCartney in a statement announcing the deal. "It's fantastic to see the songs we originally released on vinyl receive as much love in the digital world as they did the first time around."
Apple CEO Steve Jobs said. "It has been a long and winding road to get here. Thanks to the Beatles and EMI, we are now realizing a dream we've had since we launched iTunes 10 years ago."
